Amazon Reserved Instances are a great way to save money on AWS. Whether you’re looking to save on EC2, RDS, Elasticache, Elasticsearch, or Redshift, there are options to save 30-70% compared to on-demand costs. Many customers know about the opportunity and purchase Reserved Instances, but don’t have a solid execution plan to manage them going forward, resulting in wasted spend. Here are some common pitfalls we see.

Mistake #1: Thinking that once you purchase Amazon Reserved Instances, the work is done

Your journey is just beginning! Amazon Reserved Instances are only as effective as their match to your environment. Your usage will shift to difference resource types, and services may be right sized or be revamped. Dev environments will come and go as the team starts and finishes testing new features. It’s essential to continuously monitor your environment to ensure you’re eliminating any wasted spend, as well as identifying growth in usage that opens up opportunities to add additional Reserved Instances to save money.

Mistake #2: Thinking the story ends at EC2

While EC2 is the most common use case for Amazon Reserved Instances, there are 4 other services you need to monitor as well. RDS, Elasticache, Elasticsearch, and Redshift all offer Reserved Instances in one form or another. Users often overlook the savings opportunities Reserved Instances provide for these service. Additionally, did you know that not every server type has a Reserved Instance option for it? By focusing on server types for which you have reservations, and some other simple changes you can unlock additional savings.

Mistake #3: Ignoring AWS’s Pricing Changes

AWS changes prices and you need to make sure that you’re taking full advantage of them. Whether it’s converting Reserved Instances to capture the lower price or knowing what the best savings options are when it comes time to renew your Reserved Instances – you want to make sure you’re on top of all of AWS’s pricing changes when it comes to Reserved Instances.

Mistake #4: Assuming all upfront payments generate equal savings

Amazon Reserved Instances offer partial and Full upfront payment options, which have the potential to save you more – but are you choosing the best ones? Make sure you’re putting your money to work as efficiently as possible by running through various scenarios to identify which mix of reservations is best for you. This will also vary by the service you’re buying Reserved Instances for. In some places, it might be a no brainer to put a little money upfront as your savings are greatly increased. Other scenarios might lead to only a minimal increase in savings.

An Easy Solution to Optimize Amazon Reserved Instances

The key to saving money with AWS RIs is continuously monitor your Reserved Instances Fleet and test different scenarios to identify the best mix of reservations to save you the most amount of money.

Does all this optimization sound like a lot of work? That’s because it is. Eliminate all of this work by using StratCloud, which manages the buying, selling, modifying and monitoring of all your Reserved Instances. We got tired of spreadsheets and hundreds of individual decisions a month, so we created a Reserved Instance Optimizer. It uses big data analytics to analyze millions of data points optimize Reserved Instances for maximum savings. Learn more and sign up for your free demo today.